I don't read books for pleasure, but in desperation.

If Americans are to read something that is difficult, they will only do so supposing they will be admired for having done it.

Americans are genuinely and profoundly anti-intellectual. They are especially so in their pleasure-seeking, which is epically banal.

The books turn out to be about things afterwards. I don't go into them with concepts, for the most part.

A book can just be a description of a stick being snapped in half. If the reader is brought to feel the plight of the stick, well, you can imagine what that would be like.

We tire differently if we love or love not.

I begin with an image of some sort, just as if you saw something out of a window, and then went to the window to see what it was.